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لاہور (پ ر) سینئر صحافی اور مقامی اخبار کے چیف نیوز ایڈیٹر عثمان یوسف کی اہلیہ کے انتقال پر آزاد صحافیوں کی تنظیم پاکستان فری لانس جرنلسٹس ایسوسی ایشن نے گہرے افسوس و دکھ کا اظہار کیا ہے۔ ایسوسی ایشن کے صدر، عہدیداروں اور اراکین نے اس حادثہ پر عثمان یوسف سے دلی اظہار تعزیت کی اور دعا کی کہ باری تعالیٰ مرحومہ کو جنت الفردوس میں جگہ دے۔
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LAHORE: The Pakistan Freelance Journalists Association (PFJA) Wednesday hailed the posting of Kamran Lashari as the Punjab information secretary. In a press release, the Association said Lashari always took interest in journalists' problems. PFJA President Iqbal Yousafi said Lashari was an active and effective officer.
سارک ممالک کی صحافی تنظیموں کا خصوصی اجلاس سری لنکا کے دارالحکومت کولمبو میں ہوا ۔ میزبان تنظیم سری لنکا یونین آف جرنلسٹس تھی۔ تقریب کا افتتاح سری لنکا کی صدر نے کیا جبکہ دوسرے اجلاس کا افتتاح سری لنکا کے وزیر اطلاعات نے کیا
اجلاس میں بھارت ، سری لنکا، پاکستان، بنگلہ دیش سمیت علاقے کے تمام ممالک کی تنظیموں کے 21 نمائندوں نے شرکت کی۔ نمائندوں نے اختلافات " علاقے میں انسانی حقوق اور پریس کی آزادی پر اپنے اپنے ممالک کی رپورٹیں دیں ۔ نیپال اور پاکستان کے نمائندوں نے بھارت کی جانب سے بعض امور میں مداخلت کا الزام لگایا۔ پاکستانی مندوب اور پی ایف جے اے کے صدر اقبال یوسفی نے اپنی تقریر میں بھارت پر الزام عائد کیا کہ وہ پاکستانی صحافیوں کو ویزا دینے کے بعد اپنے ملک میں ہراساں کرتا ہے اور ان کے لئے انتظامیہ اور ایجنسیاں طرح طرح کی مشکلات پیدا کرتی ہیں۔ انہوں نے گذشتہ سال پاکستانی ماہوار رسالے کے ایڈیٹر محمد اظہر مسعود کی بھارت میں گرفتار کر لینے اور ان کو تشدد کا نشانہ بنانے کے افسوسناک واقعہ کی مثال دیتے ہوئے کہا کہ وہ صحافی ابھی تک لاپتہ ہے۔ مسٹر یو سفی نے کہا جبکہ پاکستان میں بھارت سے آئے ہوئے کسی بھی صحافی کو تشدد کا نشانہ بنانا تو درکنار اس کو کسی نے پو چھا تک نہیں۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ کوئی صحافی بھارتی سفارتخانے کو مشکوک دکھائی دیتا ہے تو ان کو ویزا ہی جاری نہ کیا جائے۔ اس طرح ویزا جاری کر کے شکار کی طرح جال میں پھنسانا بدترین سفارتی غنڈہ گردی ہے۔ اقبال یوسفی کے اس احتجاج پے اجلاس میں شریک بھارت کے چھ نمائندوں نے اس مسلے پر اپنی حکومت سے بات کرنے کی یقین دہانی کرائی۔ مسٹر اقبال یو سفی کے اس مطالبے کی سارک ممالک کے تمام نمائندوں نے بھرپور حمایت کی۔ سارک ممالک کی صحافی تنظیموں کے نمائندوں کا اجلاس کولمبو میں پانچ دن جاری رہا۔ اجلاس میں صحافیوں کی بین الاقوامی تنظیم انٹرنیشنل فیڈریشن آف جرنمٹس کے جنرل سیکرٹری مسٹر ایڈن وائٹ ، سنگاپور کی تنظیم اور ایف ای ایس کے نمائندوں نے بھی شرکت کی۔ اجلاس کے دوران انسانی حقوق ، علاقائی مسائل اور صحافت پر مقامی حالات کے اثرات پر سری لنکا کے معروف دانشوروں نے خصوصی لیکچرز بھی دیئے۔
Introduction
During 1999 87 journalists and media staff were killed or murdered in the course of their work, making it one of the worst years on record. Most died because they were caught up in conflicts in the Balkans, in Sierra Leone, and in Colombia, but unexplained assassinations and murders of reporters and editors account for many of the deaths.
The 1999 total is second only to the horrifying toll of 1994 when wars in Bosnia and genocide in Rwanda were primarily responsible for a sudden surge in killings of journalists. Nevertheless, we end the century on a note of dismay. Despite much talk of ethical principles and human rights, the struggle for press freedom still remains a lofty ambition in many parts of the world.
Once again we highlight the failure of Governments and investigating authorities to give priority to finding and prosecuting those responsible for the assassination of journalists. This remains a major concern. Most killings remain unsolved mysteries. Governments must give proper priority to the investigation of these deaths. When the authorities show reluctance to bring the murderers to justice they give comfort to the enemies of democracy.
The list includes the names of many media support staff who have died alongside journalists. Journalism would be impossible without the help of other mediaworkers, who, like reporters, are exposed to life-threatening risks while working in the field.
The 1999 list reveals a total of 87 deaths, of which 69 have been confirmed and 18 are still under investigation where there may be doubts as to whether a journalist was killed for his work. These deaths are the tip of an iceberg of physical assaults, jailings and disappearances that affect journalists every year. For every death recorded there are numerous instances of intimidation and violence that are not listed.
Some 25 journalists and media workers died in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, alone, of which 16 were victims of the NATO bombing of the Radio Television Serbia building in Belgrade in April.
Actions against independent media by the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have contributed to an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in the region. Particularly horrifying was the brutal assassination of Devni Telegraf Editor Slavko Curuvija after ferocious criticism of his journalism by the authorities.
The systematic oppression of independent media by the Belgrade regime of Slobodan Milosevic was not diminished by the misguided and reckless decision of NATO to target media during the 1999 bombing campaign. Indeed, this action did not solve the problem of propaganda nor did it prevent the imposition of new legal and political pressures on journalists.
But journalists and media have been targeted everywhere. In India, media came under fire in the violent exchanges on the disputed border with Kashmir and in Chechnya, Russian forces bombed and struck at Chechen media facilities in Grozny. A total of 9 journalists and media staff died in Russia and Chechnya. While some were caught up in the conflict, many of the victims in Russia died at the hands of unknown assassins.
In Africa, the civil war in Sierra Leone claimed some 10 victims among the local community of journalists' and an undeclared civil war in Colombia has led to the death of 6 journalists. At the same time two journalists were brutally killed in East Timor at the hands of Indonesian forces.
The crisis in Colombia has rekindled fears that Latin America journalists remain vulnerable to pressure from criminal gangs and political terrorists. There is a fear that we are slipping back into the dark days of the early 1990s when the killing of journalists became almost a routine business for crooks and terror gangs.
IFJ Killed List 1999
This list was prepared by the International Federation of Journalists and the International Press Institute.
The list contains the total number of killed journalists as known to the IFJ and IPI. However, the number of journalists counted is subject to alteration as a result of ongoing research and investigation.
Further information can be obtained from:
International Federation of Journalists
266 Rue Royal
1210 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 223 22 65 - Fax: +32 2 219 29 76
E-mail: ifj@pophost.eunet.be
Cases of Journalists Killed
Country: CHECHNYA
CASENR: 1
Name: Supian Ependiyev
Nationality: Chechen
Profession: Editor-in-Chief
Newsorgan: Groznensky Rabochy
Sector: Press
Date: 29 October 1999
Age:
Source: GDF, IFEX
Description: Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Groznensky Rabochy, on 27 October 1999, in Grozny, Supian Ependiyev, was mortally wounded by rocket fire. After several missiles burst in the middle of town, the journalist went to the scene of action. He intended to prepare a report, but was wounded by fragments of a missile. Ependiyev's condition was very serious when he was taken to the 9th Grozny ER Hospital. On 29 October, he died.
Country: CHECHNYA
CASENR: 2
Name: Ramzan Mezhidov
Nationality: Chechen
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: TV Tsentr
Sector: Television
Date: 29 October 1999
Age: 32
Source: GDF, IFEX, CPJ, TUJO
Description: On October 29, on the road from Grozny to Nazran, during the Russian air bombing of a convoy of trucks, Ramzan Mezhidov, a freelance correspondent with the Moscow TV company TV Center, was killed. He departed for Nazran in order to film a report. In the morning, a Russian aircraft appeared over the convoy. Having dropped bombs, a pilot supposedly noticed a man with a TV camera and shot him down. The journalist was seriously wounded and taken to the Nazran hospital, where he died because of loss of blood. He leaves two small children.
Country: CHECHNYA
CASENR: 3
Name: Shamil Gegayev
Nationality: Chechen
Profession: Cameraman
Newsorgan Nokh Cho
Sector: Television
Date: 29 October 1999
Age:
Source: GDF, IFEX, CPJ, TUJO
Description: Shamil Gegayev, a cameraman for the independent Nokh Cho television station in Grozny, was killed during a Russian air attack on a convoy of refugees fleeing Chechnya on 29 October 1999. He was covering the convoy on route from Grozny to Nazran, in neighbouring Ingushetia. As the convoy approached the Chechen town of Shaami Yurt, a Russian bomber fired several rockets from the air, hitting a busload of refugees. Despite warnings from colleagues travelling with him, Gegayev left his vehicle with his video camera to film the carnage. As he approached the bus, another Russian rocket hit a nearby truck, fatally wounding the journalist.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 4
Name: Jaime Garzón
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Radionet, Caracol Television
Sector: Radio, Television
Date: 13 August 1999
Age: 36
Source: RSF, IFEX, Periodistas, CPJ, IPI, FIP
Description: On 13 August, Jaime Garzón, a journalist and humorist with Radionet radio station and with channel Caracol Televisión, was shot by two men on a motorcycle as he was heading towards the radio station. The two men managed to flee. A man, speaking on behalf of Colombian United Self Defense (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), claimed responsibility for the assassination in a telephone call. Soon afterwards, in a fax sent to the Radionet studio, the AUC denied having played any role in the attack. According to Garzón's colleagues, Garzón had been threatened by Carlos Castaño, head of the AUC, in previous days. The journalist was known for his intervention in the peace negotiations, having attempted to obtain the release of those kidnapped by guerrilla groups. He also advised and to have the authorities start a dialogue with the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN).
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 5
Name: Guzmán Quintero Torres
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Editor-in-Chief
Newsorgan: El Pilón
Sector: Press
Date: 16 September 1999
Age: 34
Source: Foundation for Press Freedom, CJFE, IFEX, RSF, WAN, FIP
Description: Guzmán Quintero Torres was assassinated on 16 September 1999, at approximately 10:00 p.m. A photographer and a reporter from the El Pilón periodical were accompanying Quintero Torres to his house and witnessed the attack. A hired assassin intercepted them on Cesar Street, in the city of Valledupar, and shot Quintero Torres three times in the face and once in the chest. Torres was a correspondent for the Televista news programme (broadcast on the Telecaribe regional station), the vice-president of the Valledupar Journalists' Group and the coordinator of the training program for community participation facilitators run by the National Correspondence University, UNAD (antigua Unisur). His primary occupation was editor-in-chief for El Pilón. The periodical was founded four years ago and is the only one that is distributed throughout the Cesar department and in the southern region of the La Guajira department. Quintero Torres was a big fan of journalism and had organised a number of training courses for Valledupar journalists. Previously, he had been employed as the director of the Caracol radio station and as a correspondent for the El Heraldo periodical and the television NTC news programme in the city of Valledupar.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 6
Name: Rodolfo Julio Torres
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Radio Fuente
Sector: Radio
Date: 21 October 1999
Age: 38
Source: CPJ, IFEX, RSF, WAN, AP, Freedom House, FIP
Description: Radio journalist Rodolfo Julio Torres, was brutally murdered in the town of San Onofre, Sucre Department. In the early hours of 21 October, five individuals arrived at Torres' home. They drove the 38-year-old journalist to the outskirts of town. After shooting him six times, they left him dead by the side of the road. Torres worked for the Cartagena radio station Fuente. He also worked as the press secretary for a recently elected mayor. He was formerly a correspondent with Radio Caracolí in Sincelejo, the capital of Sucre Department, and with the Sincelejo daily Meridiano. Torres' colleagues are convinced he was assassinated in reprisal for his outspoken reporting.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 7
Name: Luis Alberto Rincón Solano
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist / Freelance cameraman
Newsorgan:
Sector: Television
Date: 28 November 99
Age:
Source: EJC Media News, Prensa Libre, IFEX, RSF, IPI, WAN, FIP
Description: On 28 November, at 9:00 a.m., the bodies of journalists Alberto Rincón and Sánchez Tovar were found five kilometres from the city of El Playón, Santander department. Both journalists were shot at point-blank range. Alberto Sánchez Tovar was shot twice in the head and Luis Rincón was shot once in the temple. Cartridges for a nine-millimetre pistol were found at the scene of the crime. According to the wife of Sánchez Tovar, he left his house "at about six in the morning". The two men were heading to El Playón to cover the municipal elections at the request of José Jaimes Caballeros, one of the candidates. Sánchez Tovar was the director of his own production company, Producciones de Colombia Ltd. He had hired freelance cameraman Alberto Rincón, who had worked for the production company Comuneros Televisión two years earlier, and also for Teleoriente. The journalists' photographic and video cameras were stolen by their murderers. Police suspect that the criminals were attempting to disguise the murder as a theft. Investigators suspect the paramilitary Colombian United Self Defense (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC), who are fighting against guerrilla groups for control of the region.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 8
Name: Alberto Sanchéz Tovar
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist / Owner
Newsorgan: Producciones Colombia
Sector: Television
Date: 28 November 1999
Age:
Source: EJC Media News, Prensa Libre, IFEX, RSF, IPI, WAN, FIP
Description: (see previous case 7)
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 9
Name: Pablo Emilio Medina Motta
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Cameraman
Newsorgan: TV Garzon
Sector: Television
Date: 6 December 1999
Age: 19
Source: Prensa Libre, FIP, ECJ Media News, CPJ, RSF, WAN
Description: Pablo Emilio Medina Motte was filming in Gigante when guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacked the town. According to local journalists, Mr. Medina Motte mounted a motorcycle with a commander from the police intelligence service and was shot while attempting to film the fighting.
Country: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
CASENR: 10
Name: Manuel de Jesus Gonzalez
Nationality: Dominican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Radio Azua
Sector: Radio
Date: 30 June 1999
Age:
Source: SNTP
Description: Manuel de Jesus Gonzalez was shot down and killed instantly on June 30. His wife and mother were with him when it happened.
Country: EAST TIMOR
CASENR: 11
Name: Sander Thoenes
Nationality: Dutch
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Financial Times, Vrij Nederland
Sector: Press
Date: 22 September 1999
Age:
Source: IFJ, IFEX, RSF, AJI, CPJ, Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression, NVJ
Description: Sander Thoenes was killed and his body mutilated, after he and his driver approached a roadblock on the road to Becora, a pro-independence suburb of Dili. He was a passenger on a motorbike. It is also claimed that the driver of the motorbike returned to Dili, and reported that the militia was not involved in the attack. He told reporters only Indonesian soldiers were at the roadblock.
Country: EAST TIMOR
CASENR: 12
Name: Agus Muliawan
Nationality: Indonesian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Asia Press International
Sector: Television
Date: 25 September 1999
Age: 26
Source: CPJ, IFEX, IFJ, RSF, AJI, WAN
Description: Agus Muliawan was among a group of nine people massacred by Indonesian troops in East Timor on Saturday 25 September 1999, according to wire service reports. He was working with the Tokyo-based news organisation Asia Press International. He had been in East Timor for more than two months, working on a television documentary about Falintil, the largest of several East Timorese guerrilla groups that favour independence from Indonesia. Muliawan was travelling by van with a group that included the head of the Caritas Roman Catholic aid agency, two students at the local seminary, two nuns, two assistants to the nuns and a driver, according to the bishop of Baucau, Basilio das Nacimento, who was quoted by Reuters. Indonesian troops apparently ambushed the group after nightfall in the town of Com, as they drove from Lospalos to Baucau to assess humanitarian needs there. Seven bodies were found floating in the Raomoko River 38 miles from Baucau. Two bodies were found in the van, which had been pushed into the river.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 13
Name: Enver Maloku
Nationality: Kosovar
Profession: Editor-in-Chief, Chief Kosovo Information Centre
Newsorgan: Informatore
Sector: Press
Date: 11 January 1999
Age:
Source: Belgrade Media Centre, IJC Media News, IFEX, ANEM, AMARC, CPJ, IPI
Description: The chief of the Kosovo Information Center, Enver Maloku, was killed on January 11, in Pristina. Maloku was shot by unidentified persons outside his house in the Pristina suburb Suncani Breg, at 4.10 p.m. After he was wounded, Maloku was taken to the Pristina clinic where he died. The Kosovo Information Center (KIC) announced that he was shot from a moving car with three persons in it. The Media Center announcement states that the police are looking for Maloku's killers. Maloku was a close associate of Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova and a member of the Kosovo Democratic Alliance presidency.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 14
Name: Slavko Curuvija
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Publisher/Owner
Newsorgan: Dnevni Telegraf, Evropljanin
Sector: Press
Date: 11 April 1999
Age: 51
Source: RSF, IFEX, GHM, WAN, IPI
Description: Curuvija was shot dead at the entrance of the building he lived in, according to a police statement, which added that police were searching for the perpetrators of the crime. Earlier, a well-informed source told the AFP that two unidentified gunmen opened fire on Curuvija as he was entering his home. His wife, who was with him, was knocked down by one of the attackers.
Additional: Dnevni Telegraf was banned last fall, following the introduction of a strict media law in Serbia forbidding the publishing of any material considered subversive. The daily was critical of the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Curuvija had been prosecuted several times in recent months. Banned in Serbia, the daily continued to be published in Montenegro, with copies "smuggled" into Serbia.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 15
Name: Tomislav Mitrovic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Programme Director
Newsorgan: Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS)
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 39
Source: CPJ, IFEX, IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: One of a number of casualties of the NATO missile attack against state-run Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) in Belgrade. The attack destroyed RTS's main newsroom and studios, knocking it off the air for several hours. The attack was widely condemned. The IFJ protested strongly because NATO had earlier provided a written assurance to the IFJ that Media would not be targeted. This was revoked without warning.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 15
Name: Ivana Stukalo
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Foreign Programming
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 34
Source: CPJ, IPI, IFEX, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 15)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 17
Name: Slavisa Stevanovic
Nationality: Yugoslav
Profession: Foreign Programming
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 32
Source: CPJ, IFEX, IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 15)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 18
Name: Zhu Ying
Nationality: Chinese
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Guangming Daily
Sector: Press
Date: 10 May 1999
Age: 27
Source: IFJ, IFEX, CPJ, IPI, RSF
Description: Three journalists were killed when NATO bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Shao Yuhuan of Xinhua News Agency, Xu Xinghu of Guangming Daily and Zhu Ying of Guangming Daily were all in the Chinese embassy at the time it was attacked.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 19
Name: Shao Yuhuan
Nationality: Chinese
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Xinhua News Agency
Sector: Wire
Date: 10 May 1999
Age: 48
Source: IFJ, IFEX, CPJ, IPI, RSF
Description: (see previous case 18)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 20
Name: Xu Xinghu
Nationality: Chinese
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Guangming Daily
Sector: Press
Date: 10 May 1999
Age: 29
Source: IFJ, IFEX, CPJ, IPI, RSF
Description: (see previous case 18)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 21
Name: Gabriel Gruener
Nationality: German
Profession: Correspondent
Newsorgan: Stern
Sector: Press
Date: 13 June 1999
Age: 35
Source: CPJ, IPI, RSF
Description: The journalists, Volker Kraemer and Gabriel Gruener were in Kosovo on assignment for the German magazine Stern. They and their interpreter, Senol Alit, were returning by car to Macedonia when they encountered sniper fire outside Dulje, 25 miles south of Pristina. The journalists tried to flee on foot and were hit from long-range. Kraemer was killed instantly by a shot to the head; Gruener was hit in the abdomen and died in a helicopter while being taken to a hospital in Tetova, Macedonia. Alit, who was driving the car, was also killed. His body was found lying next to the car.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 22
Name: Volker Kraemer
Nationality: German
Profession: Photographer
Newsorgan: Stern
Sector: Press
Date: 13 June 1999
Age: 56
Source: CPJ, IPI, RSF
Description: (see previous case 21)
Country: INDIA
CASENR: 23
Name: Shivani Bhatnagar
Nationality: Indian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Indian Express
Sector: Press
Date: 23 January 1999
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX, IPI, WAN
Description: On 23 January 1999, unknown assailants entered Bhatnagar's East Delhi apartment, strangled her with a length of wire, and then stabbed her in the neck and abdomen with kitchen knives. Bhatnagar had been at home alone with her three-month old son, Tanmay, who was not harmed. Police estimated that she was killed at 3:30 in the afternoon. They said that just prior to the attack, she had telephoned her husband, Rakesh Bhatnagar, legal editor for the English-language daily Times of India, telling him that two men had stopped by to deliver an invitation to a wedding in Chandigarh. Police said the drawing room table had been laid with snacks as if Bhatnagar was entertaining guests. Bhatnagar was a member of the special investigations team at the Indian Express. News reports speculated that her killers might have been attempting to recover certain incriminating documents. Two rooms in the residence had apparently been ransacked. Police ruled out robbery as a motive.
Country: INDIA
CASENR: 24
Name: N. A. Lalrohlu
Nationality: Indian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Shan
Sector: Press
Date: 10 October 1999
Age: 35
Source: RSF, IFEX, WAN
Description: On 10 October, N. A. Lalrohlu, editor of local vernacular newspaper Shan, was shot by suspected militants of separatist movements in Manipur state. The 35-year-old journalist was murdered along with three other people after they were abducted by at least 50 militants. Before his death, he published articles containing criticism of the militia groups.
Country: INDONESIA
CASENR: 25
Name: Supriadi
Nationality: Indonesian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Medan Pos
Sector: Press
Date: 5 August 1999
Age: 34
Source: RSF, IFEX, CPJ, IPI, WAN
Description: Supriadi, 34, was found hacked to death on 5 August in Buki Hagu village (in the North Aceh district). He had several head injuries. His wife said that he had been abducted from their house late Tuesday 3 August by two unidentified men. According to Medan Pos' chief editor, Supriadi had been working on stories about corruption in an agricultural project for small farmers.
Country: LEBANON
CASENR: 26
Name: Ilan Roeh
Nationality: Israeli
Profession: Correspondent
Newsorgan: Kol Israel
Sector: Radio
Date: 28 February 1999
Age:
Source: WAN, IPI, RSF, CPJ
Description: Ilan Roeh was killed in a terrorist attack which also killed General Erez Gerstein and two sub-officers in a zone occupied by Israeli troops to the south of Lebanon.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 27
Name: Bolade Fasasi
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: The Guardian
Sector: Press
Date: 7 April 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX, WAN, IPI, IPC Nigeria
Description: Bolade Fasasi, a female journalist who was treasurer of the Lagos State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists and an active member of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), was shot dead on 7 April 1999 by three unknown gunmen in Nigeria's second biggest city, Ibadan.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 28
Name: Fidelis Ikwuebe
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: The Guardian
Sector: Press
Date: 18 April 1999
Age:
Source: IJC, IFEX, CPJ, RSF, WAN
Description: Fidelis Ikwuebe, a freelance journalist who was allegedly kidnapped on 4 April 1999 during bloody inter-communal clashes in Aguleri - Umuleri in the Anambra East Local Government area of Anambra state, has been confirmed dead. Reports said the journalist, along with a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ezinifite in the Nnewi South Local Government area of Anambra state, Peter Udekwe, was kidnapped during the crisis. The police chief was said to have been sacrificed to a local deity in Umuleri while the journalist was murdered in cold blood.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 29
Name: Sam Nimfa-Jan
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Details
Sector: Press
Date: 24 May 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX, CPJ, IPI, WAN
Description: Sam Nimfa-Jan, a journalist with Details magazine, was killed in Plateau state (east of the capital, Abuja) by a mob during clashes between two ethnic groups. The journalist was covering a march and riots between the Hausa-Fulani and the Zangon-Kataf. He was reportedly killed by a mob armed with arrows, cutlasses and farm implements.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 30
Name: Samuel Boyi
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Photographer
Newsorgan:
Sector: Press
Date: 5 November 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX, WAN
Description: Samuel Boyi, a journalist with the Adamawa state-owned newspaper was killed when unidentified armed bandits attacked the convoy of the Adamawa state governor, Haruna Bonnie, who was on his way from Yola to Bauchi.
Country: PAKISTAN
CASENR: 31
Name: Nawaz Zulfiqar Memon
Nationality: Pakistani
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: The Daily Nation
Sector: Press
Date: 16 December 1999
Age: 29
Source: PPF, IFEX, IPI
Description: Nawaz Zulfiqar Memon, a district reporter for The Daily Nation in Thatta, had gone to Islamabad in a bid to seek justice from Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf when he was taken into custody by law enforcement agencies. The journalist was subjected to severe torture, was rendered unconscious for three days, and died in Thatta on 16 December 1999. Memon had gone to the police to report a disturbance. He had seen a group of criminals blocking a school van. Hurling abuse, the hooligans attacked the driver. Memon asked them to let the driver go, along with the van carrying the children and female teachers. They beat him and fled the scene. One of the attackers was identified. Memon met with the local police chief but no official was willing to register a First Information Report (FIR). He travelled to Islamabad on Friday 3 December in a bid to meet General Pervez Musharraf to seek justice. He was subsequently detained by law enforcement officers, and taken to the airport police station where he was severely tortured for three days. On receiving information of his son's circumstances, the journalist's father, Hassan Ali Memon, went to Islamabad, obtained his son's release and brought him back to Thatta where he remained unconscious for three days and later died.
Country: PERU
CASENR: 32
Name: Felix Haro Rodriguez
Nationality: Peruvian
Profession: Radio Broadcaster, Photographer
Newsorgan: Radio 1160
Sector: Radio
Date: 2 June 1999
Age:
Source: IPI, IFEX, IPYS, WAN
Description: Felix Haro Rodriguez was found dead several days after having disappeared. The method of his killing with machetes suggests that the Maoist terrorist group, the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), was responsible although the identity of the killers remains unknown. Felix Haro had been missing since 2 June, when two unknown individuals arrived at his home under the pretence of hiring him to take photographs at a social event. After an intensive search, his dismembered body was discovered in Cotomonillo, three kilometres from Aucayacu, where six villagers were recently assassinated by a brigade of the Shining Path. Additional: Felix Haro's radio programme featured traditional music, although he also informed listeners about problems in the region, including corruption among political authorities, the police and military, as well as the activities of terrorists and drug traffickers.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 33
Name: Gennady Bodrov
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Photo Journalist
Newsorgan: Kursky Vestnik
Sector: Press
Date: 19 February 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: Gennady Bodrov was murdered in Kursk. He had received a telephone invitation to take pictures of a wedding party. Camera in hand, he got in a car that was waiting for him, and was driven away. He never came home. On February 16, his mother and friends, having searched for him in vain, reported his absence to the police. On February 19, Gennady Bodrov's body with signs of violent death was found in a forest on the outskirts of Kursk.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 34
Name: Andrei Polyakov
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Rossiisky Advokat
Sector: Press
Date: 4 March 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: The body of Andrei Polyakov, press secretary of the magazine Rossiisky Advokat, was found in one of the buildings in Moscow's Dmitry Donskoy Boulevard. The journalist had been stabbed to death by an unidentified person in an elevator.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 35
Name: Vadim Rudenko
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Chelovek I Zakon
Sector: Television
Date: 30 June 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: Vadim Rudenko was found dead in his own apartment in Moscow. His neighbours, choking from the smoke that came from behind the journalist's door, had called the fire brigade. But the police say the man had received several knife wounds before his home was set on fire.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 36
Name: Lyubov Loboda
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Vesti
Sector: Press
Date: 30 August 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: Lyubov Loboda, editor of the district newspaper Vesti, was killed in the city of Kuybyshev, Novosibirsk region, on 30 August. Her body with three knife stabs was found in Panshev Street. On 14 September, the Novosibirsk law-enforcement bodies announced that Lyubov Loboda's case was closed. According to the Kuybyshev police, her suspected killer, together with his hirer and an intermediary, had been tracked down, arrested, and taken to the investigation prison in Kuybyshev. Ms. Loboda's assassination appears to have been ordered by the editor of a rival newspaper.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 37
Name: Oleg Chervonyuk
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Publisher
Newsorgan: Novosti St. Petersburg
Sector: Press
Date: 28 October 1999
Age:
Source: WAN
Description: Oleg Chervonyuk, founder and publisher of the newspaper Novosti St. Petersburg, was shot dead on the doorstep of his appartment building. His brother Sergei also died from multiple gunshot wounds in the attack that is thought to be a contract killing by hired professionals.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 38
Name: Jenner Cole
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: SKY-FM 106
Sector: Radio
Date: 9 January 1999
Age: 34
Source: CPJ, IFEX, RSF, WAN, IPI
Description: Jenner "J.C." Cole, who was killed by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels on 9 January 1999, was an on-air broadcaster with SKY-FM (106). He had previously worked with the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS). Cole leaves a son and pregnant fiancé, a mother, father, two brothers and two sisters.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 39
Name: James Oguogo
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Deputy Editor-in-Chief
Newsorgan: Concord Times
Sector: Press
Date: 8 January 1999
Age:
Source: IFEX, IPI, RSF, WAN, CPJ, IPC Nigeria
Description: James Oguogo, a Nigerian journalist for the independent Concord Times, was murdered by RUF rebels in Freetown on the evening of January 8. An eyewitness reported that a group of rebels sought out Ogogo at the newspaper's offices on Pademba Road, shouting that they were "looking for the Nigerian journalist". He was tied to the back of a truck and dragged in the direction of the State House. Before reaching the State House, the rebels stopped the truck, untied Ogogo, and told him to start walking. They then opened fire and killed him. RUF rebels regarded Nigerian journalists as partisans of the Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force (ECOMOG), brought in to support government troops in the ongoing civil war in Sierra Leone.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 40
Name: Mohamed Kamara
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Kiss 104 FM
Sector: Radio
Date: 9 January 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX, CPJ, IPI, WAN
Description: Kamara was shot dead by RUF rebels on Siaka Stevens Street in central Freetown.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 41
Name: Paul Abu Mansaray
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: Deputy Editor
Newsorgan: Standard Times
Sector: Press
Date: 9 January 1999
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX, WAN, IPI, RSF
Description: On 9 January 1999, Paul Mansaray, deputy editor of the Standard Times, his wife, two young children, and an unnamed nephew were all murdered by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels at his residence on Andrews Street, in Calabar Town, in the east end of Freetown. An unnamed fellow journalist, who was with Mansaray and his family at the time, saw the RUF rebels approaching the house and immediately alerted Mansaray. The journalist then jumped from a window as Mansaray was alerting his family to flee, and escaped to a neighbour's house. Mansaray and his family were unable to escape before the RUF rebels arrived on the scene. From the neighbour's residence, the rebels were overheard shouting at and threatening Mansaray about his journalistic work. They then fled the premises and set the house ablaze, firing their weapons into the house as it burned to the ground with Mansaray and his family trapped inside.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 42
Name: Myles Tierney
Nationality: American
Profession: Television Producer
Newsorgan: Associated Press
Sector: Wire/Television
Date: 10 January 1999
Age: 34
Source: RSF, IFEX, CPJ, IPI, WAN
Description: Myles Tierney was shot and killed on the afternoon of 10 January in Freetown. His colleague, Ian Stewart, Canadian chief of the AP regional bureau in Abidjan, was seriously injured during the attack. The two journalists were travelling in a convoy of the ECOMOG force (West African regional intervention force) with Information Minister Julius Spencer. They were allegedly attacked by a group of rebels wearing ECOMOG uniforms.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 43
Name: Abdul Juma Jalloh
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: African Champion
Sector: Pres
Date: 3 February 1999
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX, WAN, IPI, RSF
Description: On 3 February 1999 at 3:00 p.m., Abdulai Jumah Jalloh, news editor of the independent newspaper African Champion, was killed by a West African Peacekeeping Forces (ECOMOG) soldier in central Freetown. Jalloh was in the company of African Champion editor Mohammed D. Koroma, en route to print the newspaper at the John Love Printing Company when a Sierra Leone Civil Defense Force (CDF) officer named Abass saw Jalloh and stated that Jalloh resembled someone who owed him money. Abass then approached a group of ECOMOG soldiers who were nearby. The ECOMOG soldiers ordered Jalloh and Koroma to approach the area where they were discussing the matter with Abass. The soldiers told Jalloh that Abass had identified him as a Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel and that, according to Abass, Jalloh had been responsible for setting houses on fire in Kissy, in the East End of Freetown. Jalloh denied the accusation, as did Koroma, who also told the soldiers that Jalloh was actually living with him because Jalloh's house in Kissy had been burned in an arson attack a few weeks earlier by RUF rebels. The ECOMOG soldiers refused to accept Jalloh's and Koroma's statements, saying that the CDF officer had no reason to lie and therefore it must be true that Jalloh was an RUF rebel. Koroma was warned that if he defended Jalloh any longer he would be executed. An unidentified ECOMOG officer then took Jalloh aside and murdered him at point-blank range.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 44
Name: Conrad Roy
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: News Editor
Newsorgan: Expo Times
Sector: Press
Date: 30 April 1999
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX, IPI, RSF, WAN
Description: Conrad Roy, former news editor of the proscribed Expo Times, died after contacting tuberculosis in Freetown's central prison. The Sierra Leone government shut down the newspaper in 1997, claiming that it was run by sympathisers of the Revolutionary United Front rebel movement. In December 1998, Roy appeared at the Magistrate's Court where he was charged with treason, aiding and abetting the enemy, and conspiring to overthrow the government. Roy was released from prison during the RUF occupation of Freetown in January 1999. After the RUF was forced to retreat from the city in February, he was arrested by soldiers of ECOMOG. Roy contracted tuberculosis in prison. He received no medical treatment until April 26, four days before his death.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 45
Name: Alpha Amadu Bah Bah
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date:
Age:
Source: WAN, RSF, IFEX
Description: Independent journalist Alpha Amadu Bah Bah was murdered by rebels at his home in Freetown. He was stabbed then shot to death in front his family.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 46
Name: Mabay Kamara
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Vision
Sector: Press
Date: January 1999
Age:
Source: WAN, RSF, IFEX, CPJ
Description: Mabay Kamara, a free-lance reporter who contributed to the now defunct newspaper Vision, was abducted by RUF rebels from his house on Soldier Street near the State House in central Freetown and subsequently murdered. A female RUF commander ordered Kamara's abduction, which was witnessed by his wife. Rebels set the Kamara residence on fire before leaving the area.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 47
Name: Munir Turay
Nationality: Sierra Leonean
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Punch, Daily Mail, SLBS
Sector: Press, Radio
Date: 6 January 1999
Age:
Source: CPJ, RSF, IFEX, IPI, WAN
Description: Munir Turay, was a free-lance reporter who wrote for the independent newspaper Punch and the state-owned newspaper Daily Mail and had also worked as a correspondent for the state-owned Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) radio station. He was killed on January 6 in Kissy, in the East End of Freetown. Colleagues who attended Turay's funeral on February 9 reported that there were bullet holes in his body.
Country: SRI LANKA
CASENR: 48
Name: Anura Priynatha Kooray
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Independent Television Network (public)
Sector: Television
Date: 18 December 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX
Description: Anura Priynatha Kooray, journalist with the Independent Television Network (public), was killed on 18 December during a suicide bombing at a rally of the ruling party in Colombo. President Kumaratunga was delivering a speech at the conclusion of the rally, which was organised in the context of presidential elections scheduled for 21 December. The bomb killed 21 people and injured some 50 others, including the state leader. Police suspect separatists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of being behind the attack.
Country: TURKEY
CASENR: 49
Name: Cetin Gunes
Nationality: Turkish
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Hedef (Target)
Sector: Press
Date: 27 March 1999
Age: 28
Source: WAN, IPI
Description: Cetin Gunes, a columnist with the far-left periodical Hedef, died in an Ankara hospital as a result of a serious heart condition that had plagued him for some time. Gunes had been on a hunger strike in an Ankara prison when he was transferred to the hospital. Gunes was detained for questioning on July 5, 1998, and was sentenced to one year and four months in prison for "separatist propaganda" under Article 8 of the Anti-terrorist Law. The charges followed the publication in September 1994 of an article in the far-left monthly Sosyalist Alternatif, entitled, "The role and characteristics of a militant of the Turkish revolution".
Country: TURKEY
CASENR: 50
Name: Ahmed Taner Kislali
Nationality: Turkish
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Cumhuriyet
Sector: Press
Date: 21 October 1999
Age:
Source: IFJ, IFEX, WAN, CPJ, RSF
Description: Ahmed Kislali, a former Culture Minister in Turkey, died after a bomb explosion wrecked his car in Ankara. He appears to have been the victim of religious fanatics who killed him because of critical journalism against Islamic fundamentalism.
Total Journalists Killed: 50
Cases of Mediaworkers Killed
Country: BURMA
CASENR: 1
Name: U Hla Han
Nationality: Burmese
Profession:
Newsorgan: Kye Mon (The Mirror)
Sector: Press
Date: 27 September 1999
Age: fifties
Source: Burma Peace Foundation, Burma Courier, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
Description: It has been reported that U Hla Han, a media worker with Kye Mon, died on September 27 after being tortured.
Country: BURMA
CASENR: 2
Name: U Tha Win
Nationality: Burmese
Profession:
Newsorgan: Kye Mon (The Mirror)
Sector: Press
Date: 2 October 1999
Age:
Source: Burma Peace Foundation, Burma Courier, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
Description: The family of U Tha Win, a mediaworker with Kye Mon, was informed of his death on October 2 and permitted to see his body before cremation. They had a glimpse only of his badly bruised face. Afterwards they were given 10,000 kyat ($US 27) to assist with the costs of his burial rites.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 3
Name: Nenad Stojkovic
Nationality: Kosovar
Profession: Driver
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 28/03/99
Age: 27
Source: ANEM, IFEX
Description: According to Pristina's Media Centre, Nenad Stojkovic, 27, was killed by a sniper on the road from Pristina to Podujevo that morning as he was driving a crew of Russian journalists to Belgrade. The journalists, Alexander Pobrakov and Sergey Patnikov, were not injured.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 4
Name: Ksenija Bankovic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Video Mix
Newsorgan: Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS)
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 28
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: A victim of NATO's missile attack against state-run Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) in Belgrade that destroyed RTS's main newsroom and studios, knocking it off the air for several hours.
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 5
Name: Jelica Munitlak
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Make-up Artist
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 28
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 6
Name: Milovan Jankovic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Technician
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 59
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 7
Name: Dragan Tasic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Technician
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 31
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 8
Name: Aleksandar Deletic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Camera
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 31
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 9
Name: Darko Stoimenovski
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Technician, International Planning
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 26
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 10
Name: Nebojsa Stojanovic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Technician
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 27
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 11
Name: Slobodan Jontic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Equipment
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 59
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry Of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 12
Name: Dejan Markovic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Security
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 40
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 13
Name: Milan Joksimovic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Security
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 47
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 14
Name: Branislav Jovanovic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Programme Operator
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 50
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 15
Name: Sinisa Medic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Programme Design
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 33
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 16
Name: Dragorad Dragojevic
Nationality: Serbian
Profession: Security
Newsorgan: RTS
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 23 April 1999
Age: 27
Source: IPI, FRY Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Description: (see previous case 4)
Country: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
CASENR: 17
Name: Senol Alit
Nationality:
Profession: Interpreter
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 13 June 1999
Age:
Source: IPI, CPJ
Description: Senol Alit was killed by sniper fire together with journalists Volker Kraemer and Gabriel Gruener, on assignment for the German magazine Stern. Alit was acting as their interpreter and was driving the car as they came under attack.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 18
Name: John Musa
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession:
Newsorgan: Standard
Sector: Press
Date: 28 April 1999
Age:
Source: IJC, IFEX, IPI
Description: Media worker John Musa was killed in Maiduguri, Borno state, on 28 April 1999, when policemen clashed with protesting Borno state civil servants who are on strike to press for a N3,000 (US$32) minimum wage. Musa was a member of the circulation staff of the Jos-based Plateau state publishing company which publishes the Standard newspaper. Musa, described as asthmatic, was said to have choked to death because of teargas used by the police in dispersing the protesting workers.
Country: SRI LANKA
CASENR: 19
Name: Indika Paththiniwasam
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Profession: Cameraman
Newsorgan: Sirasa (private)
Sector: Television
Date: 18 December 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX
Description: Indika Paththiniwasam, cameraman with the television station Sirasa (private),was killed on 18 December during a suicide bombing at a rally of the ruling party in Colombo. President Kumaratunga was delivering a speech at the conclusion of the rally, which was organised in the context of presidential elections scheduled for 21 December. The bomb killed 21 people and injured some 50 others, including the state leader. Police suspect separatists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of being behind the attack.
Total Media Workers Killed: 19
Cases Under Investigation
Country: ANGOLA
CASENR: 1
Name: Mauricio Cristovao
Nationality: Angolan
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Radio Nacional de Angola
Sector: Radio
Date: 31 August 1999
Age: 24
Source: MISA, IFEX, WAN
Description: Mauricio Cristovao, a journalist working for Radio 5, the sports channel on the government-owned Radio Nacional de Angola, was gunned down in the capital, Luanda. According to Radio Nacional, he was shot three times, once in the head and twice in the chest by unknown gunmen who had ambushed the journalist on his way home.
Country: ANGOLA
CASENR: 2
Name: Joao da Costa
Nationality: Angolan
Profession: Administrative Assistant
Newsorgan: Radio Nacional
Sector: Radio
Date: 31 August 1999
Age:
Source: MISA, IFEX
Description: Joao da Costa's body was found in his car in the centre of Luanda. He was shot.
Country: ARGENTINA
CASENR: 3
Name: Ricardo Gangeme
Nationality: Argentinean
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: El Informador Chubutense
Sector: Press
Date: 13 May 1999
Age: 56
Source: Periodistas, IFEX, WAN, IPI
Description: Ricardo Gangeme, editor of El Informador Chubutense, was assassinated on Thursday 13 May, in the city of Trelew, as he was arriving at the building where he had been living for the last few days. It is believed that he was attacked while he was parking his car, given that they found the car with its lights on. He was shot with a .38 calibre handgun, which was fired from a distance of one to one and a half metres. He was shot in the left eyebrow and the bullet entered from above.
Country: AZERBAIJAN
CASENR: 4
Name: Telman Dibirov
Nationality: Azerbaijani
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: DM TV
Sector: Television
Date: 17 August 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX, WAN
Description: Telman Dibirov, journalist with the local DM TV Studio in Balaken, a district of Azerbaijan, was murdered by unknown person(s). As reported by newspapers in Baku, the equipment of the studio was stolen. The journalist was murdered with a knife while in the studio. The investigators said that the motives and actors of the killing are not known.
Country: CYPRUS
CASENR: 5
Name: Sertac Gorguner
Nationality: Cypriot
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Kibris
Sector: Press
Date: 12 September 99
Age:
Source: WAN, UCJ
Description: The body of Sertac Gorguner was found in a forest near Nicosia on 12 September 1999. He was a journalist for the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Kibris and had been investigating a killing at a town co-habited by Greek and Turkish Cypriots. He died of a massive head wound and had apparently been murdered.
Country: GUATEMALA
CASENR: 6
Name: Larry Lee
Nationality: American
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Bridge News
Sector: Press
Date: 28 December 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX, Media News
Description: On 28 December 1999, Larry Lee was found dead in his apartment, located in the capital's centre. He had been knifed a number of times in the throat and abdomen area. Initial investigations suggest that the journalist died between 10 and 24 hours before he was found and that he tried to defend himself before being assassinated.
Country INDIA
CASENR: 7
Name: Irfan Hussain
Nationality: Indian
Profession: Cartoonist
Newsorgan: Outlook
Sector: Press
Date: 13 March 1999
Age:
Source: CPJ, Cartoonists Network
Description: Police found the body of Irfan Hussein, a sometimes controversial political cartoonist for the English-language news magazine Outlook, off a highway in New Dehli. His body showed signs of extreme torture.
Country: INDIA
CASENR: 8
Name: Anil Rattan
Nationality: Indian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Asia Week
Sector: Press
Date: 18 March 1999
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX
Description: Police say that Rattan's body was discovered in the bathroom of his Delhi apartment on 20 March 1999 "in a highly decomposed condition," and estimate that he was killed around 18 March. According to police reports, Rattan had been stabbed several times and strangled either with a length of wire found lying near the body or with his undershirt.
Country: IVORY COAST
CASENR: 9
Name: Abdoulaye Bakayoko
Nationality: Ivorian
Profession: Newspaper Owner/Manager
Newsorgan: Le Liberal
Sector: Press
Date: 21 September 1999
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX, WAN
Description: Bakayoko was assassinated on the evening of 21 September 1999. The killers shot him and fled in a vehicle. The owner of Le Libéral was quickly transferred to a clinic, where he died from his wounds later that evening.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 10
Name: Edward Olalekan Ayo-Ojo
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession:
Newsorgan: Daily Times
Sector: Press
Date: 1 June 1999
Age:
Source: WAN, IPC Nigeria
Description: Edward Olalekan Ayo-Ojo' body was found dumped along the street in Lagos.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 11
Name: Valentina Neverova
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Pravo
Sector: Press
Date: 9 February 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: Valentina Neverova died in a fire at the regional police headquarters in Samara where she arrived to fulfil a professional assignment.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 12
Name: Valentina Mirolyubova
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector: Publishing, News Media
Date: 25 February 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: Valentina and Nikolai Mirolyubov, husband and wife and members of the National Journalists' Union, were killed at home in Yaroslavl. A VCR, a computer, and some audio and video cassettes were stolen from their apartment. For the previous months, Valentina and Nikolai had been in the publishing business; before that they worked for the local news media.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 13
Name: Nikolai Mirolyubov
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector: Publishing, News Media
Date: 25 February 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: (see previous case 10)
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 14
Name: Christopher Reese
Nationality: American
Profession: Executive Producer
Newsorgan: CTC
Sector: Television
Date: 27 September 1999
Age:
Source: GDF
Description: Christopher Reese was killed in Moscow. His body, bearing numerous knife stab wounds, was found in his rented apartment in Tverskaya Street.
Country: SRI LANKA
CASENR: 15
Name: Rohana Kumara
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Satana
Sector: Press
Date: 7 September 1999
Age:
Source: FMM, IFEX, WAN
Description: Mr. Rohana Kumara, on the night of 7 September 1999 was shot dead by unknown gunmen whilst on his way home from work.
Country: SRI LANKA
CASENR: 16
Name: Atputharajah Nadarajah
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Profession: Chief Editor
Newsorgan: Thinamurasu
Sector: Press
Date: 9 November 1999
Age: 38
Source: RSF, IFEX, Freedom Forum, WAN
Description: An unidentified gunman killed Nadarajah and his driver on the morning of 9 November. The journalist, 38, was also a member of parliament for the Jaffa district for the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), which belongs to the ruling People's Alliance coalition. Nadarajah avoided contact with the public and few people even knew what he looked like. Over the past year his weekly had changed, veering towards Tamil nationalism and supporting the Tamil Tigers. This murder occurred as the government was drawing up censorship regulations on media coverage of the civil war between the army and the LTTE (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). On 6 November, the information department issued an immediate ban on "the publication, broadcast or transmission of sensitive military information.
Country: UKRAINE
CASENR: 17
Name: Igor Bondar
Nationality: Ukrainian
Profession: Director
Newsorgan: AMT
Sector: Television
Date: 16 May 1999
Age: 32
Source: RSF, IFEX, IPI, WAN
Description: On 16 May 1999, Bondar, 32, director of the AMT television station, was shot and killed in the city's residential neighbourhood, as he was driving in a car with Boris Vikhrov, the Odessa court's presiding judge. The magistrate was also killed in the attack. It appears that this double murder was carried out by men with Kalashnikov-style automatic weapons riding in a car. The public prosecutor's office opened an inquiry, under the authority of the parliamentary commission responsible for the fight against organised crime.
Country: UNITED KINGDOM
CASENR: 18
Name: Jill Dando
Nationality: British
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: BBC
Sector: Television
Date: 26 April 1999
Age:
Source: WAN
Description: Jill Dando, presenter of a BBC television programme that investigates unsolved crimes, was shot outside her London home on 26 April. A man was seen running away from the scene of the attack, and to date no evidence has proved that her murder was not related to her investigative work for Crimewatch UK.
Total Cases Under Investigation: 17
Sources
AJI = Alliance of Independent Journalists, Indonesia, IFJ Member
AMARC = World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
ANEM = Association of Independent Electronic Media
ANP = Asociacion Nacional de Periodistas del Peru, IFJ Member
BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation
CRN = Cartoonist Relief Network
CJFE = Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
CPJ = Committee to Protect Journalists, USA
EJC = European Journalism Centre Media News
FIP = IFJ Latin America Office, Venezuela
FMM = Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka
Freedom Forum
GDF = Glasnost Defence Foundation, Russia
GHM = Greek Helsinki Monitor
HRW = Human Rights Watch
IFEX = International Freedom of Expression Exchange, Canada
IJC = Independent Journalism Centre, Nigeria
IPC = International Press Centre, Nigeria
IPI = International Press Institute, Austria
IPYS = Institute for Press and Society, Peru
JUR = Journalists Union of Russia - IFJ Member
MISA = Media Institute of Southern Africa, Zambia
NFFE = Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression
NVJ = Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten, IFJ Member
OSCE = Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Periodistas = Argentine Association for the Protection of Independent Journalism
PJA = Progressive Journalist Association, Turkey, IFJ Member
PPF = Pakistan Press Foundation
Prensa Libre, Colombia
RSF = Reporters Sans Frontières, France
TUJO = Trade Union of Journalists Azerbaijan
SNTP = Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Prensa, Dominican Republic, IFJ Member
UCJ = Union of Cyprus Journalists, IFJ Member
WAN = World Association of Newspapers
Introduction
In 1998 unpunished crimes were placed on the international agenda. Nowadays, in certain countries, it seems to be accepted that if you kill a journalist you won’t get caught.
Sometimes killings are not regarded as a priority and low grade officers are assigned to the investigations, in other instances vested interests ensure that investigations are slow and inefficient. Whatever the reason, there is a lack of commitment to prosecuting those responsible.
When a journalist is killed it is an attack against the entire population, not simply an individual. Whoever can silence the journalist can silence everyone. Unless the authorities make the investigations of these killings a priority, there is little hope for the protection of basic human rights, not just of journalists but of all.
The IFJ lists journalists killed while working or because of their work. We make no distinction between a correspondent caught in the crossfire while covering a war and the violent death of other journalists killed as a result of their work.
In some cases, especially in Latin America and the countries of the former Soviet Union, it is difficult to find the specific motive for the killing. However, background research ensures that those included in the list of journalists and mediaworkers killed are definitely or highly likely to have been killed as a result of their journalism.
Where there are doubts as to whether a journalist was killed for his work, but that remains a serious possibility, we list the case as Under Investigation.
In 1998 31 journalists were killed. Nineteen other cases are listed as under investigation. These killings are only the tip of an iceberg of physical assaults, disappearances and jailings which affect journalists every year.
There is no doubt that more must be done to protect journalists and mediaworkers, and it is time that governments took responsibility for the role they play in allowing these killings to happen.
Country by Country Analysis
(JK=Journalists killed)
(UI/M = Under investigation)
COUNTRY NUMBERS TYPE
Afghanistan 1 (JK)
Angola 1 (UI)
Bangladesh 1 (JK)
Brazil 3 (JK)
Burkina Faso 1 (JK)
Colombia 3 (JK)
Colombia 7 (UI)
Congo Brazaville 1 (JK)
Ethiopia 1 (JK)
Ethiopia 1 (UI)
FRY - Kosovo 1 (JK)
Georgia 1 (JK)
Guatemala 1 (JK)
Iran 2 (JK)
Iran 1 (UI)
Mexico 3 (JK)
Mexico 3 (UI)
Nigeria 2 (JK)
Pakistan 1 (UI)
Peru 2 (JK)
Philippines 1 (JK)
Philippines 1 (UI)
Russia 4 (JK)
Russia 1 (UI)
Rwanda 1 (UI)
Sierra Leone 1 (JK)
Tajikistan 1 (JK)
Tajikistan 1 (UI)
Thailand 1 (JK)
Figures as at 22 December 1998
TOTAL JOURNALISTS KILLED UNDER INVESTIGAION
31 19
IFJ Killed List 1998
This list was prepared by the International Federation of Journalists and the International Press Institute.
The list contains the total number of killed journalists as known to the IFJ and IPI. However, the number of journalists counted is subject to alteration as a result of ongoing research and investigation.
Further information can be obtained from:
International Federation of Journalists
266 Rue Royal
1210 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 223 22 65 - Fax: +32 2 219 29 76
E-mail: ifj@pophost.eunet.be
Cases of Journalists Killed
Country: AFGHANISTAN
CASENR: 1
Name: Mahmoud Saremi
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Islamic Republic News Agency
Sector: Wire
Date: August/September 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Mr Mahmoud Saremi, Afghanistan bureau chief of the Iranian news agency Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), was abducted by members of the Taliban militia when in Mazar-i-Sharif on 8 August. Mr Saremi was abducted together with 10 Iranian diplomats.
On 11 September, the Taliban movement announced that the 10 Iranian diplomats and one journalist, were killed by Taliban fighters, "acting on their own".
Country: BANGLADESH
CASENR:2
Name: Saiful Alam Mukul
Nationality: Bangladeshi
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Daily Runner
Sector: Press
Date: 31 August 1998
Age:
Source: Media Watch, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Saiful Alam Mukul, editor of the Daily Runner, was killed by gunmen in Jessore, a town in the south eastern district of Bangladesh. Mr Mukul was travelling home by rickshaw, to Bejpara district, when it was sprayed with bullets. Immediately after the incident, he was rushed to the Jessore General Hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.
Additional: The Daily Runner – which regularly featured articles exposing gang activity, political corruption, and human rights abuses - had published stories critical of guerrilla activity in the area around Jessore.
The Daily Runner had been out of print since June 25, when Mukul halted production in protest against the growing complacency toward crime and corruption in Bangladesh, but it was scheduled to resume publication on 1 September. The Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, Jessore Union of Journalists, and Jessore Press Club all condemned the murder, suspecting that the attack was designed to silence Mukul and crush his paper.
Country: BRAZIL
CASENR: 3
Name: Manuel Leal de Oliveira
Nationality: Brazilian
Profession: Publisher and Editor
Newsorgan: A Região
Sector: Press
Date: 15 January 1998
Age:
Source: FENAJ, SJB, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On 15 January 1998, two unidentified men fatally shot Manuel Leal de Oliveira, publisher and editor of A Região, the largest weekly in southern Bahia State. At 7:50 p.m., three men in a white van began following Leal's car as he was driving home in the town of Itabuna. When Leal got out of his car, two men stepped out of the van and fired six bullets at Leal. The driver turned the van around, picked up the other two men, and sped off.
Additional: Lal was known for his critical reporting on local authorities. In his coverage, he frequently denounced Fernando Gomes, the mayor of Itabuna, and Gilson Prata, a Civil Police marshal in the Bahia State capital of Salvador. His death is being investigated by State police.
Country: BRAZIL
CASENR: 4
Name: Jose Carlos Mesquita
Nationality: Brazilian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Ouro Verde
Sector: TV
Date: 10 March 1998
Age:
Source: FENAJ, SJR, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On 10 March 1998, three unidentified individuals shot and killed Jose Carlos Mesquita in the town of Ouro Preto do Oeste. He was killed by three shots to the head. Mesquita, host of a news program with the television station Ouro Verde in Rondonia State - which borders Colombia and Bolivia -, had just finished recording Espaco Aberto, a programme that featured politically-sensitive topics, such as the safety of public transportation.
Additional: Local journalists believe he was killed by order of local officials. His killing is being investigated by Federal Police.
Country: BRAZIL
CASENR: 5
Name: Miguel Pereira De Melo
Nationality: Brazilian
Profession: Photographer
Newsorgan: Correio Do Tocantins
Sector: Press
Date: 6 November 1998
Age: 45
Source: FENAJ, SJP
Description: Miguel Pereira De Melo 45, a Brazilian photographer who worked for Correio Do Tocantins, died in hospital, a day after being shot in the thorax by a gunman in the remote Amazon state of Para. His photographs of the bodies of 19 farm labourers killed when police fired on a crowd of landless peasants demonstrating at Eldorado de Carajas, in Para state, in April 1996, were published around the world. His were the only photographs of the massacre. The murder happened at 9pm when he was walking through the streets of Maraba, in the neighbourhood of Liberdade. The killer arrived on a bicycle, shot him and then cycled away. He died at 2am on the morning of 6 November. Additional: He was due to testify on 23 November at a court investigation into one of Brazil’s most notorious massacres, in which 144 soldiers of the Para state military police are accused of involvement. On 4 November the public prosecutor had sent an official summons to de Melo. He was shot on 5 November. The State police are treating the matter as a common criminal killing.
Country: BURKINA FASO
CASENR:
Name: Norbert Zongo
Nationality: Burkinabe
Profession: Editor in Chief
Newsorgan: L’indépendant
Sector: Press
Date: 13 December 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, AJB
Description: Norbert Zongo’s body was found in his car, on 13 December, together with the bodies of his brother, his chauffeur and one other person. Only the inside of the car was burnt and the body of the car was pierced by several holes which are believed to have been caused by bullets.
Zongo was editor in chief of the private weekly L'indépendant, and had recently published articles critical of the authorities and accusing the head of state’s brother of being in part responsible for the death of his chauffeur.
Zongo was a leading independent journalist in Burkina and was actively involved in the Burkina Press Centre in Ouagadougou. He was President of the Association of Independent Newspapers (SEP).
Tens of thousands attended his funeral, which was held on 16 December, and eulogies were given by various organisations including the Association des Journalistes du Burkina (AJB), the Société de Editeurs de la Presse privéé (SEP), the Syndicat autonome des Travailleurs de l’Information et de la Culture (SYNATIC) and the Mouvement Burkinabé Des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples.
Country: CANADA
CASENR:
Name: Tara Singh Hayer
Nationality: Canadian
Profession: Editor, publisher
Newsorgan: Indo-Canadian Times
Sector: Press
Date: 18 November 1998
Age: 64
Source: CJFE, IFEX
Description: Tara Singh Hayer was shot to death in the garage of his suburban Vancouver home on the evening of 18 November 1998. According to Hayer's son, Sukhdev Hayer, his father had arrived moments earlier at his Surrey, British Columbia home from his newspaper office, and had just transferred from his vehicle to his wheelchair when he was shot.
Additional: Hayer, who published the Indo-Canadian Times, Canada's largest and oldest Punjabi weekly, was an outspoken critic of violent Sikh fundamentalists and had already been the target of an assassination attempt at his newspaper office in 1988. At the time, he was left partially paralysed. Just a week before the attack, the publisher said in an interview that he was not concerned by ongoing threats on his life. "If they get me, they get me. There's nothing I can do and I'm not going to stop my work," he said.
Sukhdev Hayer believes the killer was trying to frighten people prior to upcoming Sikh temple elections in Vancouver and Abbotsford because they feared moderates would win. Sikh moderates and friends of Hayer said police have done little to head off the threats and violence of fundamentalists in the region.
Hayer, was married with three daughters, one son and eighteen grandchildren.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 8
Name: Oscar Garcia Calderon
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: El Espectador
Sector: Press
Date: 22 February 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IPI, IFEX
Description: Oscar Garcia Calderon, journalist with the newspaper El Espectador, was killed on 22 February 1998. Garcia, who covered bullfights for the Bogota daily for more than two decades, had left the El Espectador offices at 7:30 p.m. after reporting on that day's bullfight. Colleagues who remained at the offices received a phone call from the office of the Attorney General later that evening, informing them that Garcia had been killed at 8 p.m. by three gunshots: two to the head and one to the neck. Garcia was killed close to the Attorney General's offices, in the residential neighborhood of Ciudad Salitre.
Additional: Although the assailants did take Garcia's wallet, they did not take his watch or his gold ring, making robbery an unlikely motive. Garcia was conducting investigations into the links between bullfighting and organized crime. Garcia is survived by his wife and one daughter.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 9
Name: Nelson Carvajal Carvajal
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Teacher and journalist
Newsorgan: Radio Sur
Sector: Radio
Date: 16 April 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Nelson Carvajal, a teacher and journalist with Radio Sur, was shot and killed in Pitalito (District of Huila, southwest of Bogota) on 16 April 1998. Carvajal was shot by a young man who was waiting for him at the exit of the elementary school in the Los Pinos area, where the journalist taught. The gunman escaped on a motorcycle.
Additional: Carvajal was the producer of five community programs on Radio Sur. In addition to programming on topics ranging from health services to rural development, Carvajal provided investigative reporting about alleged government corruption. It is believed the murder is connected to allegations of corruption, made on his radio shows, implicating members of the former municipal administration.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 10
Name: Bernabe Cortes Valderrama
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Telepacifico
Sector: Televisions
Date: 19 May 1998
Age: 41
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Bernabe Cortes was murdered on the morning of 19 May 1998, by several gunmen in Cali. Cortes was a reporter with the nightly news programme Noticias CVN, broadcast on the Telepacifico network. He reported frequently on such sensitive topics as drug trafficking, corruption, and recent negotiations between the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and authorities over soldiers held by the Colombian guerrillas. Several men opened fire on Cortes as he was riding in a taxi near his office, killing both the journalist and the taxi driver. The assailants fled in a Mazda automobile and later changed to another car.
Additional: Cortes was killed while on his way to an appointment with an individual who had paged him earlier in the morning with "important news." Cortes is survived by his wife and two children.
Country: CONGO BRAZAVILLE
CASENR: 11
Name: Fabien Fortune Bitoumbo
Nationality: Congolese
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Radio Liberté
Sector: Radio
Date: 29 August 1998
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX
Description: Fabien Fortune Bitoumbo, a journalist with the privately-owned radio station Radio Liberté and former editor-in-chief of the privately-owned newspaper La Rue Meurt, was gunned down at point-blank range by the militia group of Bernard Kolela. Bitoumbo was on assignment accompanying Michel Mampouya, Minister of Mining and Industry, on a trip to Mindouli (150 kilometres from Brazzaville), which is under the control of the militia group, known as the Ninjas. The journalist was taken hostage along with his companions before being killed.
Country: ETHIOPIA
CASENR: 12
Name: Abaye Hailu
Nationality: Ethiopian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Wolafen
Sector: Press
Date: 12 February 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ
Description: Abaye Hailu, Editor in Chief of Wolafen, died in custody on 12 February 1998. He was incarcerated on February 22 1996 for articles relating to the threat of ‘Islamic Fundamentalism’. He was in prison for 2 years because he could not meet the terms of his bail. He had a lung problem and was only moved to the prison hospital after his condition had deteriorated. He was released from the hospital after two months, and before he was better. After a few weeks he was admitted to Menilik Hospital where he died 5 days later.
Country: FRY-KOSOVO
CASENR: 13
Name: Afrim Maliqi
Nationality: Kosovar
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Bujku,
Sector: Press
Date: 2 December 1998
Age: 31
Source: Albanian Journalists
Description: Afrim Maliqi, the Prishtina journalist for Bujku was killed in an ambush on his car around 5pm in the centre of Prishtina on 2 December. The assailants who were masked, shot at the car and killed all three passengers.
Additional: Maliqi had told colleagues that he feared for his life because he believed he was being followed. Journalists believe he was killed for his journalistic activity. He had been a journalist for seven years. He wrote a cultural column which criticised Serbian policy towards the Albanian language community. Bujku is one of several Albanian language daily newspapers which have been threatened with closure by the Serb authorities. Police stopped journalists entering the building on the weekend of 19 December and the paper has been unable to be published since.
Country: GEORGIA
CASENR: 14
Name: Georgy Chanya
Nationality: Georgian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Rezonants
Sector: Press
Date: 27 May 1998
Age: 25
Source: CPJ, IFEX
Description: Georgy Chanya, a reporter for the independent Georgian daily Rezonants, was killed on 27 May 1998 while covering renewed fighting between Abkhaz rebels and Georgian guerrillas near Gali in the separatist region of Abkhazia. According to Amiran Dzotsenidze, deputy editor of Rezonants, Chanya and two other Georgian journalists crossed into Abkhazia on 20 May to cover reports of ethnic cleansing of Georgians by Abkhaz rebels. The two reporters travelling with him left Abkhazia as the violence escalated, but Chanya stayed behind, choosing to follow a band of Georgian guerrillas to file reports from the front-line. He was killed during a raid on the guerrillas’ camp. Chanya’s body was mutilated beyond recognition and identifiable only through personal documents found on his corpse, and photos produced by Abkhazian military personnel. Chanya’s body was returned to Georgia along with the bodies of ten fighters in return for the release of two jailed Abkhaz rebels held by Georgian police.
Additional: Chanya was an ethnic Georgian refugee who fled the Abkhaz region of Gali with his family at the height of the 1992-93 conflict, which has seen occasional flare-ups despite a 1994 cease-fire. He settled in the neighbouring Zugdidi region and worked as a special correspondent covering Abkhazia for the independent Rezonants.
Country: IRAN
CASENR: 15
Name: Mohammad Mokhtari
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Writer and journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector: Press
Date: 3/9 December 1998
Age:
Source: WipC, NVJ, IFEX
Description: Mohammad Mokhtari, a poet and one of six writers questioned in connection with a recent initiative to form a writers' association called "Kanoun", was found dead on December 9, after having being missing for 6 days. Marks on his head and neck suggested he may have been strangled. Mokhtari contributed to various newspapers.
Additional: Mokhtari was one of three independent writers to disappear and be found dead in a period of two weeks.
Country: IRAN
CASENR: 16
Name: Mohammad Ja'frah Pouyandeh
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Writer, essayist, translator and journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector: Press
Date: 9/11 December 1998
Age:
Source: WiPC, NVJ, IFEX
Description: Mohammad Ja'frah Pouyandeh, an essayist and translator of French literature, was found dead on 11 December 1998 having been missing for two days. Pouyandeh disappeared while on his way from his office to a meeting on 9 December. According to reports, his body was found underneath a railway bridge in a suburb of Tehran having apparently been strangled. His family was not informed of the death until 13 December. Pouyandeh was one of six writers questioned in October in connection with a recent initiative to form a writers' association called "Kanoun".
Additional: Pouyandeh was one of three independent writers to disappear and be found dead in a period of two weeks.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 17
Name: Luis Mario Garcia
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: La Tarde
Sector: Press
Date: 12 February 1998
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP, RSF, IFEX
Description: On 13 February 1998, Luis Mario Garcia, a member of the editorial staff of La Tarde, was assassinated. Garcia, the newspaper's judicial correspondent, had been covering the activities of the country's Attorney General. As he was leaving the offices of the Attorney General, four persons armed with automatic weapons began to follow him. Investigators say that the assailants fired nine shots in Garcia's direction before fleeing the scene.
Additional: Garcia had written several articles focusing on police corruption. Several days earlier, Garcia, who lived in the state of Sonora (on the U.S. border), had been sent a death threat. In 1997, he escaped an attempt on his life.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 18
Name: Claudio Cortés García
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Le Monde Diplomatique
Sector: Press
Date: 23 October
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP, RSF, IFEX
Description: On 23 October, Claudio Cortés García, journalist with the Mexican edition of Le Monde Diplomatique was found dead in the back seat of a vehicle in Mexico City. He had disappeared on the night of 20 October. The journalist, who was the son of a former political prisoner, also worked for the Reforma and El Financiero dailies and for La Crísis magazine.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 19
Name: Pedro Valle Hernández
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Guerrero television
Sector: TV
Date: 29 October 1998
Age: 28
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP, Periodistas, IFEX
Description: Acapulco television reporter, Pedro Valle Hernández, was shot dead in the Mexican Pacific coast city of Zihuatanejo on 29 October. He was shot in the back of his neck while sitting in his car. He was a correspondent in Zihuatanejo for the state of Guerrero's television and radio network. Police said that the murder appears to be related to reports that the journalist had made. He had often been critical of Zihuatanejo officials, but his last report, broadcast posthumously on the day he was killed, exposed a local child prostitution ring.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 20
Name: Tunde Oladepo
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Guardian
Sector: Press
Date: 27 February 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, IJC, CPJ, IFEX, OMCT
Description: On 27 February 1998, unidentified armed men broke into the Ogun State home of Tunde Oladepo, senior editor of the Guardian newspaper, and shot him in front of his wife and children. The gunmen remained in Oladepo's home for two hours, finally leaving the premises with a television set and some clothing.
Additional: The circumstances of the death are regarded as suspicious because robbers usually leave the scene of the crime immediately. Various Nigerian sources have stated that he was killed because of his journalistic activity, in particular his reporting on local politics.
Country: NIGERIA
CASENR: 21
Name: Okezie Amaruben
Nationality: Nigerian
Profession: Journalist and publisher
Newsorgan: Newsservice
Sector: Press
Date: 28 August 1998
Age:
Source: IJC, IFEX
Description: Okezie Amaruben, journalist and publisher of an Enugu quarterly magazine, Newsservice, was shot through the skull by a policeman in the Enugu state police command. The incident occurred at about 13hours (GMT) when Amaruben had gone to check a job being done for him by a printer in Enugu. The publisher stumbled on to an armed policemen who had come to the printer’s workshop to arrest him (the printer). The police could not find the printer and decided to arrest his staff. They forced one of the staff, a young boy, into their station wagon car, which bore the inscription "Operation Vigilance 03". Mr. Amaruben then came into the place. The police immediately accosted Amaruben and claimed that he was the printer they came to arrest by order of their boss, following a complaint lodged against him by a woman for not processing her job. The police pounced on Amaruben without giving him a chance to identify himself. One of the policemen shoved the muzzle of his gun onto Amaruben's forehead and hit him on the head with the mouth of his pistol while shouting "move! move!" When they got to the vehicle, a policeman holding the butt of a gun hit Amaruben with it and shot a bullet through his head.
Additional: The policeman who shot Amaruben was arrested.
Country: PERU
CASENR: 22
Name: Isabel Chumpitaz Panta
Nationality: Peruvian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: La Voz del Pueblo
Sector: Radio
Date: 6 April 1998
Age:
Source: ANP, FIP
Description: Isabel Chumpitaz Panta and her husband, Jose Amaya Jacinto were killed by a group of armed individuals on Monday 6 April 1998. The journalist Walter Cumpitaz Panta and Carlos Chumpitaz, Ms Panta’s brother, were both seriously injured when they tried to defend her. Panta was a journalist on La Voz del Pueblo and her husband was an announcer. Walter Cumpitaz Panta is director of the news bulletin Sombrero de Paja on Radio Satelite. A witness heard the attackers accusing the mediaworkers of ‘educating the agricultural workers of the region’.
Additional: In a letter to the IFJ of 7 May, the Public Prosecutor of Peru stated that fourteen people had been arrested for the attacks on the journalists. Since these arrests there have been suggestions that police had knowledge of the plan to murder the two journalists, which is why there was no police presence at the only area through which the assassins could have escaped.
Country: PERU
CASENR: 23
Name: Jose Amaya Jacinto
Nationality: Peruvian
Profession: Announcer, journalist
Newsorgan: La Voz del Pueblo
Sector: Radio
Date: 6 April 1998
Age:
Source: ANP, FIP
Description: Isabel Chumpitaz Panta and her husband, Jose Amaya Jacinto were killed by a group of armed individuals on Monday 6 April 1998. The journalist Walter Cumpitaz Panta and Carlos Chumpitaz, Ms Panta’s brother, were both seriously injured when they tried to defend her. Panta was a journalist on La Voz del Pueblo and her husband was an announcer. Walter Cumpitaz Panta is director of the news bulletin Sombrero de Paja on Radio Satelite. A witness heard the attackers accusing the mediaworkers of ‘educating the agricultural workers of the region’.
Additional: In a letter to the IFJ of 7 May, the Public Prosecutor of Peru stated that fourteen people had been arrested for the attacks on the journalists. Since these arrests there have been suggestions that police had knowledge of the plan to murder the two journalists, which is why there was no police presence at the only area through which the assassins could have escaped.
Country: PHILIPPINES
CASENR: 24
Name: Reynaldo Bancayrin
Nationality: Philippino
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: DXLL
Sector: Radio
Date: 30 March 1998
Age:
Source: IPI, RSF, IFEX
Description: Reynaldo Bancayrin, anchorman for the DXLL radio station, was murdered on 30 March 1998 in the southern city of Zamboanga. The journalist was presenting his programme, Bale Todo, when two people knocked at the door of his booth. He allowed them in and one man shot him at point-blank range with a 45-caliber gun, while the other held back the broadcaster's colleagues. The two murderers escaped from the radio office and got away on a motorbike. The police said they were "looking into all angles, including the possibility that this may be the result of his commentaries against corruption in some government agencies."
Additional: Reynaldo Bancayrin was one of the most popular radio commentators in the region and he was conducting a crusade against official corruption, drug trafficking and illegal loggers. He was also a supporter of former Defense Secretary Renato de Villa's opposition party.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 25
Name: Ivan Fedyunin
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Bryanskie Izvestiya
Sector: Press
Date: 31 March 1998
Age:
Source: JUR
Description: At night on 31 March, Ivan Fedyunin, editor of the department of politics of the regional newspaper Bryanskie Izvestiya was killed in his appartment. His body, which was full of stab wounds, was found by police on 2 April. A few days before his death the journalist had received threatening phone calls. He had published some critical reports on the activities of a number of Bryansk companies.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 26
Name: Igor Lykov
Nationality: Russian
Profession: journalist, police officer
Newsorgan:
Sector: Press
Date: 2 May 1998
Age:
Source: JUR, GDF, IFEX
Description: On 2 May 1998, police major Igor Lykov was shot twice point-blank in his apartment in Saratov (southeast of Moscow). Lykov had repeatedly published articles in the local and Moscow press concerning corruption and unlawful actions in the law-enforcement bodies. He was regularly punished for publishing the articles, including having nine criminal suits brought against him and twice being dismissed from the police service. After a number of articles by Lykov on the methods of recruiting police officers were published in the local press, there was an attempt to accuse him of divulging State secrets.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 27
Name: Larisa Yudina
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Editor in Chief
Newsorgan: Sovetskaya Kalmykia Segodnya
Sector: Press
Date: 7 June 1998
Age:
Source: JUR, IPI, GDF, RSF, IFEX
Description: On 7 June, Larisa Yudina, editor-in-chief of the independent daily Sovetskaya Kalmykia Segodnya, was murdered in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. Her body was found in a pond. She had been repeatedly stabbed and her skull was fractured. Her paper had uncovered corruption in the autocratic administration of Kalmykia’s President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. On 7 June, an unknown person claiming to be a representative of the Agency for Co-development, reporting to the President of Kalmykia, had made an appointment with the journalist. He was to give her documents on the misappropriation of funds, which implicated the President of the Republic, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Additional: Yudina was also regional vice-president of the opposition party Yabloko. Her newspaper was in constant conflict with President Ilyumzhinov, who is also an influential businessman. Sovietskaya Kalmykia has published numerous articles criticising his authoritarianism and denouncing the corruption and misappropriation of funds under his presidency. For the past eighteen months, Yudina had also been enquiring into a company connected to President Ilyumzhinov, called Aris, which granted tax exemptions to firms setting up in an off-shore area of the republic. In her newspaper she claimed that the practice was accompanied by bribes paid by firms to the Kalmykian President. Sovietskaya Kalmykia, the only opposition newspaper in Kalmykia, has often been threatened with closure by the authorities. Since 1993, Yudina had also received numerous threats due to her articles on the wealth and personality of President Ilyumzhinov.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 28
Name: Anatoly Levin-Utkin
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya
Sector: Press
Date: 24 August 1998
Age:
Source: JUR, GDF, IFEX
Description: On 20 August 1998, at about 8:00 p.m. (local time), Anatoly Levin-Utkin, deputy editor-in-chief of Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya, was reportedly assaulted by two unknown assailants on the porch of his house in St. Petersburg. He was found unconscious, suffering from serious head trauma. The journalist's briefcase, containing material for the next paper's issue, as well as photo equipment and exposed film, were missing. On 24 August 1998, following neurosurgery, Levin-Utkin died from his injuries without having regained consciousness. According to neurosurgeon Sergei Yevdokimov, the nature of the journalist's injuries give reason to assert that he was murdered.
Additional: Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya had previously published a series of articles on corruption in St. Petersburg's banking circles. Apparently, the banking leadership, the topic of articles to have been published in the next issue, demanded that the newspaper name its sources for the articles. On a different occasion, the vehicle carrying the previous issue of the newspaper had been detained by police, allegedly under false pretences.
Country: SIERRA LEONE
CASENR: 29
Name: Edward Smith
Nationality: Sierra Leonian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: BBC
Sector: Radio
Date: 13 April 1998
Age:
Source: CPJ, WAJA, IFEX
Description: Edward Smith, a reporter with the British Broadcasting Service (BBC), was killed in an ambush in the village of Banbanduhun during the afternoon of 13 April 1998. Smith, who covered the north eastern region (Makeni and Kono districts) of Sierra Leone for the BBC since the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) took power in May 1997, was travelling with West African peacekeeping (ECOMOG) soldiers in the Kono district when their vehicles were ambushed by junta forces. Smith was a well-respected career journalist who had previously worked as a reporter for Sierra Leone's independent Vision newspaper and as an editor of The Storm newspaper for approximately five years. An ECOMOG soldier was also killed in the ambush.
Country: TAJIKISTAN
CASENR: 30
Name: Meirkhaim Gavrielov
Nationality: Tajik
Profession: Editor in Chief
Newsorgan: Donish
Sector: Press
Date: 8 June 1998
Age: 70
Source: IFJ, MFDJA, GDF
Description: On 8 June 1998, around 9 pm local time, unknown individuals burst into the home of journalist Meirkhaim Gavrielov, beating and then strangling him with an iron wire. Gavrielov was a noted journalist who had worked for the Tajik media for more than fifty years. At the time of his murder, he was editor-in-chief of the Tajik Agrarian University newspaper Donish, a position he had held since 1979. He was also the author of several books and a member of the Bukharian (Central Asian) Jewish Section of the Writers Union of Tajikistan.
Country: THAILAND
CASENR: 31
Name: Sayomchai Vijitwittayapong
Nationality: Thai
Profession: Journalist (Stringer)
News organ: Matichon, Khao-sod and Thai Post
Sector: Press
Date: 10 January 1998
Age: 40
Source: RAT
Description: Sayomchai Vijitwittayapong, who was a stringer for several daily newspapers, including Matichon, Khao-sod and Thai Post was found shot dead in his car in Phichit Province (in central Thailand). According to the publishers of Matichon, the journalist had agreed to meet with a person after receiving a "mysterious phone call" the day before his murder. On an earlier occasion, Vijitwittayapong had turned down an offer of a bribe of 150,000 Bath (approx. US$ 4,200) to stop investigations into allegations of corruption related to a building of small irrigation dam project.
Additional: The Reporters' Association of Thailand issued a statement condemning the murder calling on the Police Department to handle this case carefully as this murder presents a threat to all journalists. Total: 31 Cases Under Investigation
Country: ANGOLA
CASENR: 1
Name: Simao Roberto
Nationality: Angolan
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Jornal de Angola
Sector: Press
Date: 5 June 1998
Age: 42
Source: MISA, NSHR, Channel Africa, IFEX
Description: Simao Roberto, a journalist for the government-owned Jornal de Angola, was gunned down in Luanda on 5 June 1998. Roberto was returning from the State House, where he had covered a meeting of the council of ministers, when he was killed.
Additional: The motive for the killing is unclear and his murder may be unrelated to his journalistic activities.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 2
Name: Didier Aristizabal Galeano
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist and professor of journalism
Newsorgan: Todelar
Sector: Radio
Date: 2 March
Age: 32
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Didier Aristizabal, a well-known reporter for Todelar and other local radio stations, was gunned down by unidentified assailants on 2 March 1998, as he left the Santiago de Cali University where he taught. He was followed by two men riding a Yamaha motorcycle after leaving the University and when Aristizabal stopped for a traffic light the two men on the motorcycle shot him nine times and fled the scene. A taxi driver took Aristizabal to the Academic Hospital of Cali, where he was pronounced dead.
Additional: Aristizabal worked as a political reporter for radio station Todelar in Cali until 1994 before joining the faculty of Santiago University as a journalism professor. In 1996, he took a position as chief press officer for the Cali Fair, a bullfighting tournament. At the end of 1997, he helped the National Police in Cali set up a radio news station.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 3
Name: Jose Abel Salazar Serna
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Todelar
Sector: Radio
Date: 14 March
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On March 14, radio journalist Jose Abel Salazar Serna was found dead in his apartment in the central Colombian town of Manizales, the capital of Caldas Department. Salazar, the host of a radio programme called Youth in Action on the Todelar station, had been stabbed 15 times.
Additional: Salazar had broadcast appeals for peace and co-existence.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 4
Name: Amparo Leonor Jiménez Pallares
Nationality:
Profession: Journalist, human rights worker
Newsorgan: En Vivo, Redepaz
Sector: TV, Radio
Date: 11 August 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Amparo Leonor Jiménez Pallares, was shot in the head three times by a man who later fled in a vehicle driven by an accomplice. She was a correspondent for the television news program En Vivo in Valledupar, in north-east Colombia, and also worked for the non-governmental organisation Redepaz (Network of Initiatives for Peace and against War). She had just taken her eleven-year old son to school. Authorities announced that Jiménez had received death threats by telephone shortly before she was killed. She had stopped working as a journalist about two and a half months before she was killed.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 5
Name: Nelson Osorio Patiño
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist, Owner
Newsorgan: Señal Colombia, RCN, El Tiempo, Revista 7
Sector: TV, Radio, Press
Date: 27 August 1998
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Nelson Osorio Patiño was killed on the morning of 27 August 1998 as he waited for a car repair shop to open near Avenida Boyuca in western Bogotá. A man walked up to Osorio and shot him twice in the head and twice in the shoulder, then fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.
Additional: Osorio was a sports reporter and producer with the Gran Prix sports programme, broadcast on Señal Colombia. He was also the owner of a regional sports newspaper in Florence, Caquetá, and owner of a local news show, Revista 7. He previously worked as a regional correspondent for the Bogotá daily El Tiempo and RCN radio.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 6
Name: Nestor Villar Jimenez
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: September 11
Age: 40
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Nestor Villar Jimenez, a prominent journalist and former congressman, was killed by gunmen in Villavicencio, capital of Meta province. It was not immediately clear if his murder was politically motivated, but his brother was killed under similar circumstances two years ago.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 7
Name: Saúl Alcaraz
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Spokesperson
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 14 October 1998
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX, FIP
Description: Saúl Alcaraz was the spokesperson for an environmental group in Medellín called Instituto Mi Río. He was shot on 14 October. Alcaraz was a former correspondent for Teleantoquia Noticias Fin de Semana, but hadn't worked in journalism in four years.
Country: COLOMBIA
CASENR: 8
Name: Jose Arturo Guapacha
Nationality: Colombian
Profession: Director
Newsorgan: El Panorama de Cartago
Sector: Press
Date: 15 October
Age:
Source: CCRG, FIP, IPI, CPJ, IFEX
Description: Jose Arturo Guapacha, director of the weekly El Panorama de Cartago, was fatally shot in the head by a gunman waiting for him near a garage exit. Guapacha had worked for radio stations and had been director of Panorama for 10 years.
Country: ETHIOPIA
CASENR: 9
Name: Tesfaye Tadesse
Nationality: Ethiopian
Profession: Editor
Newsorgan: Mestawet, Lubar
Sector: Press
Date: 7 June 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, CPJ, IFEX
Description: On 7 June 1998, at approximately 8.30 pm, Tesfaye Tadesse, the owner and editor of the magazine Mestawet and the newspaper Lubar (both presently out of circulation), was murdered in front of his residence. He was stabbed and hacked to death by two unidentified individuals using a knife and a machete. The attackers escaped the scene of the crime in a DX Toyota.
Additional: Tesfaye, a lawyer by training, was also an activist and a member of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). He was previously under Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when Gebre Igziabher, a member of the leadership committee of the opposition Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRP), was murdered in Addis Ababa in mid 1993.
Country: GUATEMALA
CASENR: 10
Name: Antonio Castillo Gálvez
Nationality: Guatemalan
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Avances
Sector: TV
Date: 24 June 1998
Age:
Source: APG, FIP, IFEX
Description: Antonio Castillo Gálvez, an editor with the state-owned television news Avances, was killed by unknown individuals on 24 June. According to investigations made by authorities, the incident occurred at 10 am in Guatemala City. As Castillo was leaving his residence, his killers, without saying anything, shot the journalist twice and, to ensure that he was dead, shot him a third time.
Additional: It is unclear whether Gálvez was killed for his journalistic activities.
Country: IRAN
CASENR: 11
Name: Majid Sharif
Nationality: Iranian
Profession: Writer, jouranlist
Newsorgan: Iran Farda
Sector:
Date: 20/24 November 1998
Age: +/- 45
Source: WiPC, IFEX
Description: Majid Sharif left his home on 20 November 1998 and his family lost sight of his whereabouts. On 24 November they were summoned to identify his body in a morgue in Tehran. While it is at present unclear what occurred, there are fears that his disappearance and death may be connected to his calls in his writings for a more modern interpretation of Islam.
Additional: A writer, translator and devout Muslim, Sharif was a key member of a group calling itself "The Committee for Research into the books of Dr. Shariati." Shariati, who died during the time of the Shah, was a Sorbonne-educated university lecturer and Islamic scholar who advocated a more modern approach to Islam and a separation of religion and state. After the revolution which brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, Shariati's books were all banned. Sharif, through his work with the Committee, called on the Iranian government to make them freely available once more. He wrote essays on political and sociological topics for an influential journal called Iran Farda (Iran Tomorrow). The body bore no signs of beating or torture. A story in the official press suggests he had suffered a heart attack, but the literary community in Iran is calling for a full investigation into his disappearance and death.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 12
Name: Fernando Martinez Ochoa
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 25 October 1998
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP
Description: Fernando Martinez Ochoa, a reporter from Juarez, was found dead in his car.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 13
Name: Eduardo Mendosa
Nationality: Mexican
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 27/28 October 1998
Age:
Source: SNRPTASC, FIP
Description: Eduardo Mendosa, was found stabbed to death on the back seat of his car.
Country: MEXICO
CASENR: 14
Name: Philip True
Nationality: US citizen
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: San Antonio Express- News
Sector: Press
Date: 5/15 December 1998
Age:
Source: CPJ, IFEX
Description: Philip True left his home in Mexico City on November 28 for a 10-day reporting trip through the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental of Nayarit and Jalisco states. After visiting the region earlier this year, True had filed a memo with his editors at the paper in April outlining a major project on the local Huichol Indians. True was last seen alive in the village of Chalmotitia on December 4. After an intensive search carried out by the Mexican military, True's body was located at the bottom of a ravine on December 15. He had been dead for as many as 10 days.
Additional: While initial reports suggested that he had been killed in a fall, forensic evidence made public by the medical examiner in Jalisco made clear that he had been strangled by a cloth and had sustained a head injury which was not attributed to a fall. It is believed that he was killed along a riverbank, and that his body was dragged or carried along the trail and dumped into the ravine. It was partially covered with rocks in an attempt to conceal it. Neither True's wedding ring nor his watch were taken, making robbery an unlikely motive, according to state officials in Jalisco. There is forensic evidence that True was sexually assaulted. It has been suggested that True may have either stumbled on sensitive information, or may have inadvertently offended local villagers by asking questions or taking photographs. The sexual assault may have been carried out in an effort to punish or humiliate him.
Country: PAKISTAN
CASENR: 15
Name: Lakhano Siyal
Nationality: Pakistani
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: Aftab, Ibrat, Mehran
Sector: Press
Date: 18 October 1998
Age:
Source: PPF, IFEX
Description: On 18 October 1998, Lakhano Siyal, a senior journalist, was found murdered by unknown assailants when his family members returned home from a marriage function at 2 p.m. (local time). Siyal was a former vice-president of the Hyderabad Press Club and ex-chief reporter for the dailies Aftab, and Ibrat. He had also worked for Mehran, a local Sindhi daily. His family claimed that when they were leaving for the marriage party, two young boys, aged 15 to 17, came to meet Siyal. The two young visitors were left behind with Siyal as they often came to meet him.
Additional: Preliminary investigations conducted by police revealed that he was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon after having been gagged with a piece of cloth and that he had struggled against his attackers. A blood-stained Shalwar suit, a shirt and trousers were found at the scene of the murder, leading investigators to believe that the killers changed their clothes after the murder. Blood-stained hand prints were also found on a wash basin at the scene. Police have arrested thirteen persons on suspicion of Siyal's murder.
Country: PHILIPPINES
CASENR: 16
Name: Nelson Catipay
Nationality: Philippino
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: DXMY
Sector: Radio
Date: 17 April 1998
Age: 35
Source: CPJ, IFEX
Description: According to CPJ, journalist Nelson Catipay, a correspondent for radio station DXMY in Cotabato City, was shot while travelling in a jeepney (passenger minivan) to a news conference in the town of Sultan Kudarat. Catipay was killed by two unidentified men who were fellow passengers, according to police reports. The killers reportedly shot Catipay nine times before fleeing the scene. Police have made no arrests in the attack.
Additional: According to reports, Catipay was a commentator who denounced abuses and corruption in government at another radio station, which he left to join DXMY. His death may have been related to a land dispute but is also part of a pattern of rising violence against journalists in the Philippines.
Country: RUSSIA
CASENR: 17
Name: Vladimir Zbaratski
Nationality: Russian
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan: ITAR-TASS News Agency
Sector: Wire
Date: 30 January 1998
Age:
Source: JUR
Description: On January 30, Vladimir Zbaratski, a staff member of ITAR-Tass news agency was assaulted on Mosrilmovskay Street, Moscow, as he was returning home from his office late at night. He was beaten and robbed. His murder is being investigated.
Country: RWANDA
CASENR: 18
Name: Wilson Ndayambadje
Nationality:
Profession:
Newsorgan: National Radio and Television
Sector: Radio and Television
Date: 28 January 1998
Age:
Source: RSF, IFEX
Description: Wilson Ndayambadje, a reporter in Gisenyi with the National Rwandan Radio and Television, was beaten and killed by a soldier from the national army, Emmanuel Rutayisire, after a fight between the two men. Rutayisire was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a military tribunal on 29 January. He was executed the same day.
Country: TAJIKISTAN
CASENR: 19
Name: Otakhon Latyfi
Nationality: Tajik
Profession: Journalist
Newsorgan:
Sector:
Date: 22 September 1998
Age:
Source: IFJ, MFDJA
Description: Otakhon Latyfi was murdered near his home on 22 September 1998.
Total: 19
Sources
AJB = Association des Journalistes du Burkina – IFJ Member
ANP = Associación Nacional de Periodista del Peru - IFJ Member
APG = Associación de Periodistas de Guatemala
CCRG = Círculo Colombiano de Repórteros, IFJ Member
CJFE = Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
CPJ = Committee to Protect Journalists, USA
FENAJ = Federaçao Nacional do Jornalistas, IFJ Member
FIP = IFJ Latin America Office, Caracas
GDF = Glasnost Defence Foundation, Moscow
IFEX = International Freedom of Expression Exchange, Toronto
IJC = Independent Journalism Centre, Lagos
IPI = International Press Institute, Vienna
JUR = Journalists Union of Russia - IFJ Member
MFDJA = Mongolian Free Democratic Journalists’ Associationm IFJ Member
MISA = Media Institute of Southern Africa, Zambia
MW = Media Watch
NDIMA = Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa, Nairobi
NVJ = Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten, IFJ Member
OMCT = Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture, Geneva
Periodistas = Argentine Association for the Protection of Independent Journalism
PPF = Pakistan Press Foundation
RAT = Reporters’ Association of Thailand, IFJ Member
RSF = Reporters Sans Frontières, France
SDJB = Sindicato dos Jornalistas, Bahia
SDJP = Sindicato dos Jornalistas, Para
SDJR = Sindicato dos Jornalistas, Rondonia
SNRPTASC = Sindicato Nacional de Redactores de la Prensa y Trabajadores de Actividades Similares y Conexes, IFJ Member
WAJA = West African Journalists Association
WiPC = Writers in Prison Committee, London
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